Jennifer Whitmore
Question:3. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Transport the efforts he is undertaking to expand access to rail services for south County Wicklow; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32228/21]
View answerThursday, 17 June 2021
Questions (3)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
What efforts is the Minister undertaking to expand access to rail services in south County Wicklow? As he will be aware, there has been a considerable population increase in County Wicklow but it has not been matched by our public transport infrastructure, particularly rail infrastructure. Many people have to commute long journeys on heavily congested roads when they would much prefer to have rail services available to them. I ask the Minister to make a statement on that matter.
I am very glad to talk about the expansion of public transport in the south Wicklow area. I am not just talking about rail but also the wider context. It is important that we take a multimodal approach to transport planning and the provision and integration of public transport services and infrastructure. That approach is evident in the statutory transport strategy for the wider greater Dublin area, which includes south Wicklow and which the National Transport Authority is required to prepare under the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008. The Act requires the NTA to develop a 20-year multimodal strategy and requires it to review and update the strategy every six years to take account of developments and revise the strategy as needed. The current strategy sets out a range of proposed interventions required across all modes and progress is under way on a number of those interventions. These include the DART+, which will provide enhanced capacity as far as Greystones but could provide associated benefits as far south as Wicklow, and the N11 bus priority project, which will seek to enhance bus priority along this route and enhance the attractiveness of the bus as an option for south Wicklow commuters.
Specifically looking at rail, aspects of the Wicklow rail line are challenging and potentially susceptible to coastal erosion. That is why my Department, through the NTA, is funding a programme of works over the coming years to protect the existing railway line from coastal flooding and coastal erosion and improve the reliability and availability of the existing rail services across County Wicklow. In addition to the above, there are two reviews under way which are of relevance to potential further improvements to rail in the county. The first is the ongoing review of the transport strategy for the greater Dublin area, which is under way with a draft strategy to be published by the NTA later in the year for public consultation. The second is a strategic rail review, which my Department is leading on and which will look at inter-urban and inter-regional rail and will be of relevance to south Wicklow, given the intercity services that operate on the line.
What I am hearing is that there are a lot more plans for south County Wicklow. People have been hearing about plans for south County Wicklow for years and what we need is a commitment to extend the DART to Wicklow town and to look at extending it to Arklow. The infrastructure is there. The rail line is there and we need to build on it. It takes years to put in these plans and people are suffering now. People have long commutes and are being forced further and further away from their workplaces and families. They need access to public transport services, and our environment needs that as well.
I also raise the Avoca train station. As the Rosslare to Dublin train goes through this station, it does not make any sense at all that it is not open. Will the Minister look at reopening that train station and making the most of the infrastructure we have?
I will speak to Irish Rail about the Avoca train station and see what the possibilities are. With regard to rail, and particularly the Wexford line going into south Wicklow, there are developments going on across the country. This strategic rail review will look at how we can extend commuter services and I would do that as we electrify. The DART will be fully electrified on certain services, such as the one to Maynooth, with overhead power lines and so on. There may well also be a possibility of running battery electric trains, which can avail of that power supply and then run on a battery system if they go beyond the grid network. This technology is still evolving and the types of trains that would operate on a service running as far south as Wicklow or Arklow are only at an early stage of development but it is something at which we are looking. It might provide an opportunity to enhance our rail services. There are real benefits to electrified trains rather than diesel ones when it comes to starting and stopping times and that might make commuting from the likes of Wicklow town a possibility.
I organised a meeting between the NTA and the five Deputies from Wicklow a few months ago, at which it mentioned battery-operated trains to Wicklow town. I ask that a focus be put on providing that service, including further south to Arklow. It is critical that we give people public transport and rail options. People who are living in south Wicklow have to travel an hour or two hours to work and get stuck on the N11. I am aware that work is happening on the N11 but as the Minister said, we have to have a multimodal response. The best bang for our buck would be using the infrastructure we have in place, such as the rail line. A battery-operated train service to Wicklow town and Arklow would give people the options they need. We need people to move away from their cars. We passed the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021 last night. It is critical that we give people options and invest in enabling them to take public transport in an efficient way.
I agree with what the Deputy said about the multi-modal approach and the potential for battery electric trains. Regarding the area south of Greystones, I had a meeting with Geological Survey Ireland, GSI, recently and we looked at coastal erosion risk maps.
The south of Greystones jumps out like a red beacon. We have a perilous situation with the line and significant engineering works will have to be done. That takes time and involves a major cost. It is not an insignificant engineering issue, so we have to remember that for anything south of Greystones in particular.
There are also budget constraints. There are a variety of different calls in terms of metropolitan rail services in our regional cities, as well as Dublin with the DART+ scheme and so on. It will take time but the advances in that battery train capability in one area will help in other areas once we have demonstrated that they can work. That may allow projects to advance more quickly, learning from one city and implementing that elsewhere.